Such A Time As This
by melliyna
Summary: "You have come to your royal position for such a time as this" or a retelling of the story of Queen Esther with Anne Boleyn as a Mizrahi Jewish lady.
1. Chapter 1

**Notes:** I used a few references for this. The Jewish Virtual Library version of Esther (supplemented by the original text in translation), Simon Schama's history of the Jewish people  & The Jews of Iran (by Houman M. Sarshar). There was a Jewish Community (though not openly but they were there) in Elizabethan London - I've moved the foundation back a bit and made some things up but there was a community. Henna painting is a Persian-Jewish tradition. The shabbat song that plays in my head when Anne prays comes from a specific Persian Jewish Shabbat Song. (cross posted on AO3)

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Her father calls her Amara Anne in private. Ami, her mother calls her. But they both call her Esther ("Esther who is very beautiful and very kind and very wise and very brave").

Mary is Miriam, George has always been their Farzin and Anne grows up with three halves of herself - Anne, Amara and Esther.

But that is what it is to be of their people in this place. Annes' mother is the daughter of the Duke of Norfolk through his second wife - a Syrian lady who kept to her faith despite the prohibitions and the careful fiction that the Lady Elizabeth Tilney was merely of an obscure (but wealthy and titled) family.

(It is true that she is of a wealthy and noble family but it is not one of Europe, let alone of England. The Duke of Norfolk had been at least somewhat careful when his eyes alighted on a young and pretty prospect for a second wife).

Her father is the son of two Persian Jews who had found something of a safe haven in London and who had been elevated to the nobility (if the minor nobility) by dint of their skills as diplomats and courtiers.

And so Anne has three selves. Three stories. Anne Boleyn, English Lady with an interest in the reformed religion, Amara who learns the Hebrew and Persian tongue and keeps the Sabbath with joy and Esther who wishes she did not hide herself.

But then Anne has found it hard to hide. She is dark haired, dark eyed and olive skinned - taking after her father rather than her mother. Mary has her mothers inheritance from their English grandfather - golden haired, fair skinned and blue eyed. George looks like Anne, though it is less noticeable in him, the signs of being what the English see as other. So Anne has grown up knowing she is different and stands out and yet she does not because in the end no one knows outside of the small hidden community.

And so Anne paints her hands with henna and and sews bridal silks her grandmother had bought from Persia and learns to hide that she does not eat pork and her skin goes darker in the sun than was proper and correct. She has been learning to hide ever since she was a small child but there is joy in it as well, somehow.

She goes to the French Court hiding her story so well it almost becomes unreal - the little girl Amara who danced in silks and painted henna onto her hands and arms, who made the challah and drank hot mint tea and teased her older siblings in languages she is not supposed to know. Here she is Anne Boleyn - the bright over young child who becomes a favourite of Marguerite of Navarre and later Queen Claude and who debates theology and learns new dances, new music, new languages and stories. She loves to learn. In the end though, she finds herself saying her Jewish prayers in her head while sitting in a Christian church and biting her tongue when there is any debate or mention of the Jewish people.

("You are talking of me, of my family" she wants to say to the courtiers when they sneer or repeat the stories about the Jewish monsters who steal babies to make matzoh and mix the blood in with their gold and have poisoned all the wells in France. But it would do no good at all). And she should be used to hearing this - as it has been around her all her life and it would not change - to be Jewish was to be safe nowhere.

But England feels safer at least. Anne returns to her home and to her family and what she hopes will be a quiet life. She wants to raise her children and love her husband (whoever he may be) and be surrounded by her family in safety and to not have to worry about hiding herself away.

And then the King of England shakes the world.

It begins with a is a feast to celebrate the betrothal of the Princess Mary to the Dauphin of France - it had been finalised and Mary will soon be going to France so she may become accustomed to the country that she will one day rule. But it is also a way in which King Henry will further punish her mother - for not having a son, for objecting to his ennobling Henry Fitzroy and for pushing a Spanish match that failed. So he seeks to further make her position (& his lack of affection) clear.

So Queen Katherine refuses to attend the betrothal feast when she is summoned. It was simply the final straw - to pretend to be pleased her daughter was leaving to be married to a Valois, to smile as Henry danced with his mistress and to know she no longer had any power at all - that it had been taken by Wolsey who had engineered this betrothal and that Henry had not just refused to listen to her (he has done that enough, of late) he has deliberately humiliated her. He has kept her from her daughter.

So she refuses to attend, hoping perhaps she can shame Henry into understanding how he has hurt her. She has nothing else left - her nephew is still a prisoner of the French King having failed in his war against France and the Pope? She has heard it will be Wolsey next now. So she must do this.

King Henry has never been angrier when his wife refuses to attend the banquet, once again defying him and in such a brazen fashion. He forgets that she has been so dignified for so many years, he forgets the love they shared and sees only his humiliation and the anger that people will whisper he cannot control his own wife.

So King Henry determines to send his Queen away and to marry again. Not to a foreign princess no - no more foreign influences. He wishes for an English Lady, one who will give him an English heir. With Wolsey recently appointed the papal representative in England it is easy enough for him to grant the divorce - Mary remains a Princess through a loophole and is sent to France and Queen Katherine is banished to a nunnery, though a luxurious one. And the King begins his search for a wife.

The Lady Anne is not even in consideration. Nor does she wish to be. But her uncle the Duke of Norfolk sends her to court (her older sister Mary is married now) simply to support the favoured Howard candidates. Anne dresses as simply as possible without standing out as too sparsely dressed and aims to hide in the group of ladies.

She does for the most part. But it is hard not to be drawn into the court so she finds herself in the quiet of an intellectual circle - not at the centre of the court by any means (Anne will leave that to the maidens with the proper heritage, without a secret like hers to hide) but it is not frozen out of court doings. She helps the Howard ladies with their hair, their dress and their jewels and keeps to the background much as she longs to dance and laugh and take a central role in the masques.

But somehow, somehow the king still notices her. She thinks at first that he is going to make her his mistress and this, this she will not do and so she sends the jewels he gifts her back as tactfully as she can (they are jewelled crosses and Anne fingers the pendant that is the quiet symbol of her faith from her mother and feels sick looking at these crosses, at the symbol of the faith that has sent her family and her people into hiding for fear of blood and burning). It only makes the King want her more, this dark haired maiden with the deep eyes and a face you cannot help but follow no matter how she hides in the background.

As Henry talks to her he finds her kind, wise and brilliant - educated better than many princesses and while not of high nobility or royal descent the lady Anne carries herself like she was born to be Queen. Born to be his Queen. And he will marry her - there is no obstacle, no impediment.

Anne says yes as she must and prays, oh she prays. She says shabbat and she finds herself praying that she will have the wisdom to hide her faith and the courage to keep to it. She looks at Thomas More and is terrified (she knows what he thinks simply of heretics, let alone of Jews) and at the Cardinal who must resent her rise and oh, oh she prays for the courage to hold to her faith. To hold to herself.

Cardinal Wolsey is thought to be lax on heresy (he does not burn heretics) but he is still an ardent Catholic and he still does not have favourable thoughts towards the Jewish people. Anne knows that if he ever found out her true faith he would destroy her in a heartbeat - reformist tendencies can be forgiven, being a Jew cannot be. And he resents her for rise and for her family's rise.

But then Wolsey had essentially run the country for a long time - he did not wish his influence to be usurped by anyone, let alone the kings new wife. Queen Anne to be (now her Grace the Duchess of Pembroke) may have favoured French interests due to her time in the French court but Wolsey knows her family are said to favour the reformed faith and the Lady Anne does not strike him as a woman who will not interfere in political matters.

The Cardinal is proved right when Anne speaks to the King about the former Queen - she asks that Katherine be housed in more comfort, that she is allowed to come to court if she wishes and that the lady is given more servants (Anne might in her heart fear the former Queen - she has heard tales of the inquisition, of the long weary path into exile of friends among the small community she grew up in London but there is no reason there to not be kind. Perhaps it might even help, one day).

And most of all that Katherine is allowed to see her daughter. Princess Mary's intended husband had recently died so she had returned to England, the marriage being unconsummated. Anne has built a friendship with the young girl and can see how much Mary longs for her mother and so she asks if Mary cannot after all see her mother.

The king says yes, distractedly. And the courtiers whisper about the influence that the lady has on the king and the Cardinal worries (what might this girl do?). Sir Thomas does not worry, not yet (though he has heard disturbing things about the heretic leanings of the lady she has not as yet shown them).

In the spring the Lady Anne Boleyn weds King Henry and becomes Queen Anne. She is dressed all in white and underneath her dress she wears the pendant from her mother and feels she is not really married at all after this Christian service. She reminds herself that she must think it real, at least in part. At least on the surface.

(what she wants is henna, a rabbi, the ketubah and the laughter and joy of her family).


	2. Chapter 2

The Cardinal will freely admit he is not fond of the new queens family - particularly her father who seems to be gaining more influence on the privy council by the day. And though they have interests in common at this moment it could change. And he has heard whispers that the Boleyns are something more than simply reformists of the church - that they are believers in the Lutheran Heresy. And that, that is a dangerous thing indeed.

As well the Cardinal looks and sees a Queen and is determined she will not surpass him in power and in influence with the King. That she will remain out of politics - her and her wretched father both.

So the Cardinal talks with Thomas More about a strengthening of the laws against reformist priests and their sermons and the smuggling in of certain books and they bring this proposal to the King, certain of their victory.

It is defeated. A defeat spearheaded by Thomas Boleyn in all his capable diplomacy. It is then that the Cardinal makes a vow to destroy him and Thomas More vows to see him burn - for is that not what must be done to heretics after all. And he will see it done.

Anne finds a way to keep the sabbath as best she can even if only by keeping it within her own head. Being alone as queen is essentially impossible but she can keep a few trusted friends about her sometimes and it is there that she finds her strength.

Her father wears his appointment to the privy council with ease, though Anne hears of his opposition to policies of the Cardinals and worries. But she is proud of him - truly and deeply proud - it has not been an easy road he has walked these past years and yet he has always had time for his children, more than many would.

Thomas Boleyn sends her a Torah, hidden in the cover of a prayer book - the Torah she was given as a child and Anne traces her childish handwriting in the fly leaf and tears come to her eyes and she is warmed enough to get through the day of going to Church. She must go more than she wishes now as the King wishes to pray for the safe delivery of the child Anne is now carrying and he dances attendance on her more than ever.

Anne can only feel suffocated and terrified but she tries, oh she tries not to show it. This man, this man would destroy her people and her entire family and all her friends if he knew her blood and indeed, he has written of the need to do such things. She cannot love him, not knowing this. But she will be a good Queen, she has vowed. And she will teach her children where they hail from and who they are.

The Cardinal has watched all he has slowly slide away. Yes, he had gotten rid of Queen Katherine (he had never liked her, particularly for her influence over the King) but he had thought to find a pliable French Princess to be the Kings wife and to have gotten himself made pope by now. But he has not - the old pope has hung on to life when he was not expected to and so he must wait. And while he waits he does not want to give up any of what he has gained.

Particularly to lose it to a man like Boleyn, talented diplomat though he is. Boleyn has never respected him and it has shown - firstly there was the matter of the laws and now? Now it is the matter of Boleyn's refusal to bow to the Cardinal as papal legate, will not kiss his ring or respect his sermons.

"I worship only the Lord, not idols or men" is what Boleyn says, carefully leaving out that it is not the Christian deity he believes in (there are things he must do to survive but he cannot and will not do this). And of course because the wretched mans daughter is beloved of and pregnant by the King there is not much that Wolsey can do. Not now. Not yet.

But he has a plan. He will find a woman (or women, he amends) to be the mistress of the King and to influence Henry back towards his old trusted advisor and then? Then he will destroy Thomas Boleyn, hopefully teaching the Queen to keep to her place and to not meddle in such things as policy.

After all Cardinal Wolsey has already engineered the downfall of one Queen - why not another?

Anne's sons are born near the beginning of summer, after a relatively short labour with no complications. She looks down at them and her heart sings with joy, despite everything because these are her babies. She and her husband have decided on names (Edward and Henry) but Anne will give them her own names too. Her children will like her, have three names.

Edward. Ardashir. Aaron.

Henry. Kaveh. Joshua.

And the blessings she gives them are not in English but in the two languages of their other names. She looks at them and thinks perhaps, just perhaps she can raise princes who will make a safe place for the people they share a faith with. She can do nothing less than try though, Anne thinks as she watches her delighted husband almost run into her rooms and kiss her again and again in thanks and joy. Perhaps it will be well after all.


	3. Chapter 3

Even giving Henry Hampton Court has not been enough and Cardinal Wolsey knows it. Can see his influence slipping further and further away by the day, especially since the Queen has given birth to two healthy and robust sons and her father has successfully negotiated a treaty that has greatly increased the size of the kings treasury. Now the Boleyns can do no wrong at all and what is worse? The Queen has won the love and gratitude of the common folk for her charity work, for her kindness to the former Queen and her daughter and for the careful way she has introduced reforms.

Enough is enough. The Cardinal must do something. As it turns out what he does is to have Thomas Boleyn spied upon. And what he finds is entirely and completely unexpected. The man it turns out, has not only been harbouring reformers (and indeed outright Lutherans) but has also been benefiting from Jewish money. And in return has been hiding a Jewish community right in the heart of London, it seems. (Apparently Boleyn's forebears had been merchants who had helped to import certain Jewish goods - Wolsey is certain that they have also imported much in the way of gold and evil in the kingdom in equal measure).

And here, here is his chance. He cannot touch the Queen, he knows that (though perhaps his plan of using a woman who can become Henry's mistress can still be used if needed to lessen her influence) - she has given the king two sons and is pregnant again and Henry will not repudiate the mother of his son but he can certainly crush her father and through that he will be able to destroy the Jewish stain that has crept back into England.

That this will also include the benefit of the principal treasures of the Jews being presented to Henry and his treasury which will restore him to Henry's good graces is the crowning glory (and perhaps the Queen will die in childbed and Wolsey can find Henry a new and pliable wife and the princes can be properly influenced). All he has to do is gather the right evidence.

And he turns to Thomas Cromwell to do it.

Thomas Cromwell was taught by his mother - how to keep Shabbat, how to pray and even how to read (though she was not supposed to know such things). And above all how to stay hidden - it was a lesson he had learned in his bones from dodging his father's fists. So he has always been able to stay hidden and deeply so.

When he hears what the Cardinal wishes him to do Cromwell cannot steady his hands. Cannot stop shaking at the fear. He has faced battle many times and he has navigated the slippery waters of the royal court but this? This is facing the prospect of massacred children, massacred families. A people once again murdered and driven away from the community they had built. And then he wonders if he is willing to chance the rumours about the Queen and her family being true. And even if they are, what can she do without endangering herself?

In the end he slips a letter under the door of Thomas Boleyn and prepares another letter for the Queen in case the first is not acted upon. He has done and will do many things for the King but this? This he cannot do.

When her father brings her the letter (a letter that he has verified by various means) Queen Anne rests her hands on her growing belly and thinks of her children. Thinks whether she can do this when it is not just her who will bear the cost. Whether she has the courage after all.

She tries to pray and finds herself fumbling, all at sea and entirely unsure. And then she thinks of her children again. Of her family and their friends, of the little community that has found something of safety in this land and of what could be lost. And of what she needs to do and the chance, just the chance that perhaps her children and all the other Jewish children in England may be able to be a little safer. For this she will do this.

And so Queen Anne sends a message asking whether her husband would like to dine with her in her rooms this night. When he arrives she smiles and makes sure his favourite dishes are set before him and they talk of all kinds of things before Anne asks her question. She asks if his majesty would not vow to protect her and their children from all harm and all who would harm them - no matter who it may be.

"I will, sweetheart. I always will. I swear before God and the saints that I will always keep you safe and treasured...but why do you speak so my own darling? Has someone tried to hurt you?"

The anger in his voice at the thought that someone might hurt her gives Anne some hope at least and she simply smiles and says that her pregnancy is making her worry but that, perhaps, they might have the Cardinal to dine with them for spiritual counsel and for blessing?

King Henry agrees with his Queen.

In the two days between there is a thread that runs through the Jewish community in London. A whisper of hanging upon the edge of destruction or perhaps, by the mercy of G-d and the Queen something new. And so, the Jews of England fast and pray and ask G-d for his blessing in all Queen Anne does.

In the two days between Cardinal Wolsey is well satisfied by the invitation to dine (perhaps the Queen is not so unreceptive to his advice after all) and has drawn up the order to seize the assets of the Jews and to destroy them. It only awaits the Kings signature and seal and it will be done and the Cardinal will be well favoured by both earthly and divine powers. And so the Cardinal prays and asks for the blessing of the Lord to destroy those Jews.

In the two days between the Queen has prayed. She has kissed her children goodbye and told them she loves them. She has asked her rabbi to stay with them, to teach them and to guide them if something should happen to her. And she has asked G-d to be kind and to guide her steps and her strength.

And so the Queen, the King and the Cardinal come to dine together. And the Queen says, your majesty did you not vow to protect me from those who would harm me? And the King replied that yes he did and he will. Well, said the Queen pointing to the Cardinal - there sits one who would do me a great harm for he would kill my people. But I only wish to destroy the Jews, said the Cardinal - it would enrich the treasury of your majesties a great deal.

"But I am of that people, Cardinal. I am a Jew" said the Queen. "And you would harm me and destroy the Princes of England who are also of that people. And I would have protection for my people, who have been much maligned and persecuted. Will you keep to your vow, my husband?"

And the King said that yes he would and he took the Queen in his arms and roared for the guards to arrest the cardinal and thus was a great enemy of the Jewish people destroyed and the Jews praised G-d and the Queen also thanked G-d for speaking through her and making England a place in which the Jewish people could reside in safety and protection.


End file.
